RADAR SYSTEMS

Dr T PADMA
Professor
Dept of ECE
 Syllabus
Unit I
Introduction to RADAR: General form of RADAR range equation – block diagram of simple pulsed RADAR and
determination of range - maximum Unambiguous range, Radar resolution cell volume, pulse repetition
frequency
Unit II
Radar Radiation Patterns and Displays: Cosecant squared radiation pattern for RADAR antennas - RADAR
displays - synthetic and Raw displays, Radar Types based on frequency, Waveform, prf, applications. Detection
and false alarm Probability - integration of RADAR pulses-RADAR cross section of various targets.
Unit III
Radar Systems: Doppler frequency shift and determination of velocity –Block diagram and working principle of
CW Doppler RADAR, FMCW Radar and Pulsed Doppler RADAR. MTI Radar block diagram and use of Delay line
cancellers- Blind speed.
Unit IV
Digital MTI processing Tracking Radar: Monopulse tracking-Amplitude comparison monopulse system in one/
two coordinates (block diagram)-phase comparison monopulse, Sequential lobing, Conical scan tracking Radar –
tracking in range-comparison between Monopulse and conical scan tracking RADARs.
Unit V
Radar Receivers: Block diagram of super heterodyne receiver- Detection of Radar signals in noise –Matched filter
criterion- detection criterion – Extraction of information and waveform design.
Special purpose radars: Synthetic Aperture Radar- Height finder- 3D radars -Radar Beacons- Radar Jamming.
Text books
1. Introduction to Radar Systems – Merrill I. Skolnik, SECOND EDITION,
McGraw-Hill, 1981.

Reference books
1. Introduction to Radar Systems – Merrill I. Skolnik, THIRD EDITION,
Tata McGraw-Hill, 2001
 Unit I
Introduction to RADAR:
General form of RADAR range equation –
block diagram of simple pulsed RADAR and
determination of range - maximum Unambiguous
range,
Radar resolution cell volume,
pulse repetition frequency
 Invention
• British physicist James Clerk Maxwell developed equations governing the behaviour of electromagnetic waves in 1864.
• Inherent in Maxwell’s equations are the laws of radio-wave reflection, and these principles were first demonstrated in 1886 in experiments by the German physicist Heinrich Hertz.
• Some years later a German engineer Chistian Huelsmeyer proposed the use of radio echoes in a detecting device designed to avoid collisions in marine navigation.
• The first successful radio range-finding experiment occurred in 1924, when the British physicist Sir Edward Victor Appleton used radio echoes to determine the height of the ionosphere,
an ionized layer of the upper atmosphere that reflects longer radio waves.

• The first practical radar system was produced in 1935 by the British physicist Sir Robert Watson-Watt,

• By 1939 England had established a chain of radar stations along its south and east coasts to detect aggressors in the air or on the sea.

• In 1935 Watson-Watt wrote a paper entitled "The Detection of Aircraft by Radio Methods". This was presented to Henry Tizard, the chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Survey
of Air Defence. Tizard was impressed with the idea and on 26th February 1935, Watson-Watt demonstrated his ideas at Daventry. His idea was based on the bouncing of a radio wave
against an object and measuring its travel to provide targeting information. It was called radar (radio detection and ranging). As a result he was appointed head of the Bawdsey Research
Station in Felixstowe.

• By the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Watson-Watt had designed and installed a chain of radar stations along the East and South coast of
England.
• In the same year two British scientists were responsible for the most important advance made in the technology of radar during World War II.
• The physicist Henry Boot and biophysicist John T. Randall invented an electron tube called the resonant-cavity magnetron. This type of tube is capable of generating high-frequency
radio pulses with large amounts of power, thus permitting the development of microwave radar, which operates in the very short wavelength band of less than 1cm, using lasers.
• Microwave radar, also called LIDAR (light detection and ranging) is used in the present day for communications and to measure atmospheric pollution. During the Battle of Britain
these stations were able to detect enemy aircraft at any time of day and in any weather conditions.

• Radar was also used by ships and aircraft during the war. Germany was using radar by 1940 but Japan never used it effectively. The United States had a good radar system and it was
able to predict the attack on Pearl Harbor an hour before it happened.

• Britain tended to have the best radar system during the early stages of the war and in 1940 the invention of the Magnetron cavity resonator enabled more centimetric waves
to be transmitted. It also enabled more compact high-frequency sets to be used by aircraft in the Royal Air Force.
British physicist Sir Robert Watson-Watt
 Introduction

RADAR: Radio Detection And Ranging

A radar operates by radiating electromagnetic
energy and detecting the echo returned from reflecting
objects (targets)

The nature of the echo signal provides information about the

target

The range, or distance, to the target is found from the time it

takes for the radiated energy to travel to the target and back.
• Radar is Substitute of eye, in doing what the eye cannot do-Radar cannot resolve
detail as well the eye, nor is it capable of recognizing the "color" of objects to the
degree of sophistication which the eye is capable.
• Radar designed to see to normal human vision, such as darkness, haze, fog, rain,
and snow.
• Radar able to measure the distance / range to the object.
• An elementary form of radar consists of a transmitting antenna emitting
electromagnetic radiation generated by an oscilIator of some sort, a receiving
antenna, and an energy-detecting device / receiver.
• A portion of the transmitted signal is intercepted by a reflecting object (target) and
is reradiated in all directions.
• It is the energy reradiated in the back direction is of prime interest to the radar.
• The receiving antenna collects the returned energy and delivers it to a receiver,
where it is processed to detect the presence of the target and to extract its location
and relative velocity.
• The distance to the target is determined by measuring the time taken for the radar
signal to travel to the target and back.
• The direction, or angular position, of the target may be determined from the
direction of arrival of the reflected wavefront.
• The usual method of measuring the direction of arrival is with narrow antenna
beams.

• If relative motion exists between target and radar, the shift in the carrier
frequency of the reflected wave (doppler effect) is a measure of the target's
relative (radial) velocity and may be used to distinguish moving targets from
stationary objects.

• In radars which continuously track the movement of a target, a continuous

indication of the rate of change of target position is also available.
• Radar ---early experimenters ---a device to detect the presence of a target
and measure its range.
• Radar: Radio Detection And Ranging.
• It was first developed as a detection device to warn of the approach of
hostile aircraft and for directing antiaircraft weapons.
• The most common radar waveform is a train of narrow, rectangular-shape
pulses modulating a sine wave carrier. The distance, or range, to the target
is determined by measuring the time TR taken by the pulse to travel to the
target and return.
• Electromagnetic energy propagates at the speed of light c = 3 x 108 m/s,

Range (R ) { factor 2: two way propagation}

{Km: Kilometers; nmi: nautical miles}

• Rate at which the pulses transmitted is determined by the longest
range at which targets are expected.
• If the pulse repetition frequency is too high, echo signals from some
targets might arrive after the transmission of the next pulse, and
ambiguities in measuring range might result.
• Echoes that arrive after the transmission of the next pulse are called
second-time-around (or multiple-time-around) echoes
• Echo shorter range than actual could be misleading if it were not
known to be a second-time-around echo.
• The range beyond which targets appear as second-time-around
echoes is called the Maximum Unambiguous Range
{fp = pulse repetition frequency, in Hz}
 RADAR RANGE EQUATION
• The radar equation relates the range of a radar to the characteristics of the
transmitter, receiver, antenna, target, and environment.
• It is useful not just as a means for determining the maximum distance from the
radar to the target, but it can serve both as a tool for understanding radar
operation and as a basis for radar design.
{ Radar transmitter Power ------ Pt }

• Gain: Ratio of the maximum radiation intensity from the subject antenna to the
radiation intensity from a lossless, isotropic antenna with the same power
input.

• The radiation intensity is the power radiated per unit solid angle in a given
direction
• The amount of incident power intercepted by the target and reradiated back in
the direction of the radar is denoted as the radar cross section

• It is a characteristic of the particular target and is a measure of its size as seen by

the radar.
• The radar antenna captures a portion of the echo power. If the effective area of
the receiving antenna is denoted Ae
• Power Pr received by the radar is
• Fundamental form of the radar equation.

• Note that the important antenna parameters are the transmitting gain and the
receiving effective area.
• Antenna theory gives the relationship between the transmitting gain and the
receiving effective area of an antenna as:

• Since radars generally use the same antenna for both Tx & Rx
• Two other forms of the radar equation
 RADAR BLOCK DIAGRAM PULSED RADAR

• Transmitter -oscillator, MAGNETRON, that is " pulsed“ (turned on and on) by the
modulator to generate a repetitive train of pulses.
• The magnetron -most widely used of the various microwave generators for radar.
• A typical radar -detection of aircraft at ranges of 100 or 200 nmi
• peak power of the order of a megawatt,
• an average power of several kilowatts,
• a pulse width of several microseconds, and
• a pulse repetition frequency of several hundred pulses per second.
• The waveform generated by the transmitter travels via a transmission
line to the antenna- radiated into space -for both transmitting and
receiving.
• The receiver must be protected from damage caused by the high
power of the transmitter -duplexer.
• The duplexer serves to channel the returned echo signals to the
receiver and not to the transmitter.
• The duplexer -two gas-discharge devices, one known as a TR
(transmit-receive) and the other an ATR(anti-transmit-receive).
• The TR protects the receiver during transmission and the ATR directs
the echo signal to the receiver during reception.
• Solid-state ferrite circulators and receiver protectors with gas-plasma
TR devices and/or diode limiters are also employed as duplexers
• The receiver -super heterodyne type.
• The first stage -low-noise RF amplifier, -parametric amplifier or a low-noise
transistor.
• Not always desirable to employ a low-noise first stage in radar.
• The receiver input -mixer stage, especially in military radars that must operate
in a noisy environment.
• Receiver with a low-noise front-end
• more sensitive,
• the mixer input -greater dynamic range,
• less susceptibility to overload, and
• less vulnerability to electronic interference.
• The mixer and local oscillator (LO) convert the RF signal to an intermediate
frequency(IF).
• A " typical" IF amplifier for an air-surveillance radar -centre frequency of 30 or
60 MHz and a bandwidth of the order of one megahertz
• The IF amplifier -designed -matched filter; i.e., its frequency-response function H
(f ) should maximize the peak-signal-to-mean-noise-power ratio at the output.
• This occurs when the magnitude of the frequency-response function │ H ( f ) │ (
is equal to the magnitude of the echo signal spectrum│ s ( f ) │ , and the phase
spectrum of the matched filter is the negative of the phase spectrum of the echo
signal.
• Radar signal waveform approx. -rectangular pulse, IF filter bandpass characteristic
approx. - matched filter when the product of the IF bandwidth B and the pulse
width r is of the order of unity
• After maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio in the IF amplifier, pulse modulation is
extracted by the second detector and amplified by the video amplifier to a level
where it can be displayed on CRT
Display types: A- Scope, B-Scope, PPI
• Timing signals are the indicator to provide the range zero.
• Angle information is obtained from the pointing direction of the antenna.
• The most common form of cathode-ray tube display is the plan position indicator, or
PPI which maps in polar coordinates the location of the target in azimuth and range.
• This is an intensity-modulated display in which the amplitude of the receiver output
modulates the electron-beam intensity (z axis) as the electron beam is made to
sweep outward from the center of the tube.
• The beam rotates in angle in response to the antenna position.
• B-scope display is similar to the PPI except that it utilizes rectangular, rather than
polar, coordinates to display range vs. angle.
• Both the B-scope and the PPI, being intensity modulated, have limited dynamic
range.
• A-scope, which plots target .amplitude (y axis) vs. range (x axis), for some fixed
direction.
• This is a deflection-modulated display.
• It is more suited for tracking-radar application than for surveillance radar.
• A common form of radar antenna is a reflector with a parabolic shape, fed
(illuminated) from a point source at its focus.

• The parabolic reflector focuses the energy into a narrow beam,-searchlight or

an automobile headlamp.

• The beam may be scanned in space by mechanical pointing of the antenna.

• Phased-array antennas - used for radar.

• Phased array -beam is scanned by electronically varying the phase of the

currents across the aperture.
 RADAR FREQUENCIES
• Conventional radars -operated at frequencies -220 MHz to 35 GHz, a spread of
more than seven octaves.
• Skywave HF over-the-horizon (OTH) radar -frequencies as low as 4 or 5 MHz,
• Groundwave HF radars as low as 2 MHz.
• Millimeter radars operated at 94 GHz.
• Laser radars operate at even higher frequencies.
• Development of radar, a letter code such as S, X, L, designated radar frequency
bands
• original purpose was to guard military secrecy
• Radar-frequency letter-band nomenclature adopted by the
• IEEE-International Telecommunications Union for radar.
• Ex: Nominal frequency range -L band is 1000 to 2000 MHz, an L-band radar is
confined within the region from 1215 to 1400 MHz since that is the extent of
the assigned band
Radar frequencies and the electromagnetic spectrum
 APPLICATIONS OF RADAR
• Radar -ground, in the air, on the sea, and in space.
• Ground-based to detection, location, and tracking of aircraft or space targets.
• Shipboard radar -navigation aid and safety device to locate buoys, shorelines,
and other ships. as well as for observing aircraft.
• Airborne radar -other aircraft, ships, or land vehicles, or i t may be used for
mapping of land, storm avoidance, terrain avoidance, and navigation.
• In space, -assisted in the guidance of spacecraft and for the remote sensing of
the land and sea.
• Air Traffic Control ( A TC): Radars are employed throughout the world for the
purpose of safely controlling air traffic en route and in the vicinity of airports
• Aircraft Navigation: The weather-avoidance radar used on aircraft to outline
regions of precipitation to the pilot is a classical form of radar.
• Ship Safety: Radar is used for enhancing the safety of ship travel by warning of
potential collision with other ships, and for detecting navigation buoys, especially
in poor visibility.
• Space: Space vehicles have used radar for rendezvous and docking, and for
landing on the moon.
• Remote Sensing: A11 radars are remote sensors; however, as this term is used it
implies the sensing of geophysical objects, or the "environment.“
• Law Enforcement: To measure the speed of automobile traffic by highway police,
radar has also been employed as a means for the detection of intruders
• Military: Many civilian applications of radar are also employed by the military.
The traditional role of radar for military application has been for surveillance,
navigation, and for the control and guidance of weapons.
 Minimum Detectable Signal
• Radar receiver to detect a weak echo signal is limited by the noise energy
that occupies the same portion of the frequency spectrum -signal energy.

• The weakest signal the receiver can detect is called the minimum detectable
signal.

• The minimum detectable signal -difficult -statistical nature and because the
criterion for deciding whether a target is present or not

• Detection -establishing a threshold level at the output of the receiver.

• If the receiver output exceeds the threshold, a signal is assumed to be

present-Threshold Detection.
 Radar receiver output A, and B, and C represent signal plus noise. ,A & B would be valid detections, but C is a missed detection
• This might represent one sweep of the video output displayed on an A-scope.

• The envelope has a fluctuating appearance caused by the random nature of noise.
• If a large signal is present such as at A it is greater than the surrounding noise peaks and can be recognized on
the basis of its amplitude.

• Threshold level were set sufficiently high, the envelope would not generally exceed. the threshold if noise
alone were present, but would exceed it if a strong signal were present.

• If the signal were small -more difficult to recognize its presence.

• The threshold level must be low if weak signals are to be detected, but it cannot be so low that noise peaks
cross the threshold and give a false indication of the presence of targets.
• The voltage envelope -matched-filter receiver
• A matched filter is one designed to maximize the output peak signal to average noise (power) ratio.

• It has a frequency-response function which is proportional to the complex conjugate of the signal spectrum-
not " impedance match “

• A matched filter for a radar transmitting a rectangular-shaped pulse is usually characterized by a bandwidth B
approximately the reciprocal of the pulse width τ, or B τ≈ 1.

• The output of a matched-filter receiver is the cross correlation between the received waveform and a replica
of the transmitted waveform -does not preserve the shape of the input waveform.

• A target is- detected if the envelope crosses the threshold.

• if the signal is large such as at A, it is not difficult to decide that a target is present.

• Two signals at B and C, representing target echoes of equal amplitude.

• Noise voltage accompanying the signal at B is large enough -combination of signal
• plus noise exceeds the threshold.
• At C the noise is not as large and the resultant signal plus noise does not cross the threshold.
• Thus the presence of noise will sometimes enhance the detection of weak signals but it may also cause the loss
of a signal which would otherwise be detected.
• Weak signals such as C would not be lost if the threshold level were lower.

• But too low a threshold increases the likelihood that noise alone will rise above the
threshold and be taken for a real signal-called a FALSE ALARM.

• If the threshold is set too low, false target indications, but if it is set too high, targets might
be missed.

• Selection of the proper threshold level --if a mistake is made either by (1) failing to
recognize a signal that is present (probability of a miss) or by (2) falsely indicating the
presence of a signal when none exists (probability of a false alarm).
 Maximum Unambiguous Range
• Radar signals should be transmitted at every clock pulse
• If we select a shorter duration between the two clock pulses, then the echo
signal corresponding to present clock pulse will be received after the next clock
pulse.
• Due to this, the range of the target seems to be smaller than the actual range.
• So, we have to select the duration between the two clock pulses in such a way
that the echo signal corresponding to present clock pulse will be received before
the next clock pulse starts.
• Then, we will get the true range of the target and it is also called maximum
unambiguous range of the target or simply, maximum unambiguous range.
𝑅=𝑅𝑢𝑛 ; 𝑇=𝑇𝑃 ; 𝑅𝑢𝑛=𝐶𝑇𝑃
the pulse repetition time, 𝑇𝑃 as the reciprocal of pulse repetition frequency, 𝑓𝑃.
𝑇𝑃=1/𝑓𝑃
 Pulse Repetition Frequency(PRF)
• PRF is normally expressed as the number of pulses transmitted in 1 s and is
therefore denoted in Hertz or pps (pulses per second).
• Typical values for a marine radar are 1000–3000 pps. The pulse repetition
interval (PRI) is the time interval between pulses.
• Pulse Repetition Frequency Pulse Repetition Frequency (PRF) of the radar
system is the number of pulses that are transmitted per second.

• Radar systems radiate each pulse at the carrier frequency during transmit time
(or Pulse Width PW), wait for returning echoes during listening or rest time,
and then radiate the next pulse, as shown in the figure.
• The time between the beginning of one pulse and the start of the next pulse is
called pulse-repetition time (PRT) and is equal to the reciprocal of PRF as
follows:
 Radar Resolution Cell
• The volume of space that is occupied by a radar pulse and that is determined by the pulse
duration and the horizontal and vertical beamwidths of the transmitting radar.
• Note: The radar cannot distinguish between two separate objects that lie within the same
resolution cell.
• The radar resolution cell depth (RCD ) remains constant regardless of the distance from the
transmitting antenna.
• It does not increase with range. The RCD is given by RCD = 150d , where the RCD is in meters
and d is the pulse duration in microseconds.
• The height of the cell and the width of the cell do increase with range
• These are given by W = (HBW )(R /57) and H = (VBW )(R /57), where W is the width of the cell,
HBW is the horizontal beamwidth in degrees, R is the range, H is the height of the cell, and
VBW is the vertical beamwidth in degrees.
• The range, R , is the distance from the radar antenna to the reflecting object, i.e., the target.
• The width and height will come out in the same units in which the range is given.
• For example, if the range is given in meters, the width and height of the radar resolution cell
will be in meters.
• The 57 merely converts degrees to radians. If the beamwidths are given in radian measure, the
57 is omitted.
 Pulse Resolution Volume

• The pulse resolution volume and resolution cell characterizes the joint resolving capability according to the
range and angular coordinates.

• Pulse resolution volume is assumed to be limited by the half-power beam width φ of the antenna directivity
pattern (−3 dB) and the length Δt = τi/ 2, with τi as the duration of the transmit pulse (or, in the case of intra-
pulse modulation, by the duration of the signal at the output of the pulse compression device).

• If very narrow pencil beam, i.e. with small values of the angles ϴaz and ϴel, the size of the pulse resolution
volume can be calculated according to the following equation:
values of the angles Θaz and Θel are given in radians
If in degrees, converted to radians by multiplying
by (π/180
• The pulse resolution volume can also be considered as cylindrical depending on
the used model of an approximation of the antenna pattern to simple geometric
shapes.
• In this case, the pulse resolution volume is calculated according to:
c0 = speed of light;
R = distance to the radar antenna (range);
τ = duration of the transmitted pulse.
• The wider the spectrum of transmit pulse and the narrower the antenna directivity pattern
are, the smaller is the pulse resolution volume and the higher is the resolution capability of
the radar station.

• At the same time, the interference immunity from passive disturbances distributed in space
(dipole reflectors, ionized clouds, atmospheric structures, fixed targets) increases.
• In weather radar, the pulse resolution volume has a greater importance.
• Pulse resolution volume increases with increasing distance, many more raindrops now fit into it for the same rain intensity: the
effective reflection area will thus also increase.
• Therefore, the basic radar equation in weather radar has a completely different form than in an air surveillance radar.
• Because of this, in weather radar we also speak of a volume target: the volume target completely fills the pulse resolution
volume.

• In contrast, surveillance radars usually locate point targets: The reflecting object gets lost in the ever increasing pulse
resolution volume with increasing distance.

• Please do not confuse the pulse resolution volume with the size of a range cell in radar signal processing, i.e. the memory cell
corresponding to a range segment. Such range segment should be at most half the size of the pulse resolution volume.

• The resolution should also not be confused with accuracy.

• Nevertheless, in most radar projects, a first guess for the accuracy figure (one standard deviation) will be half the value of the
corresponding resolution.
• When the radar is realized, the accuracy is frequently better than the first guess because: e.g., the range accuracy is a
characteristic of the measurement of the elapsed time between the departure of the transmitted pulse and the arrival of the
echo at the receiver.
• If the transmitted pulse is a perfect rectangular one, the received pulse will look like a Gaussian curve because the receiver
bandwidth is finite; in addition, the noise will disrupt the Gaussian shape of the received pulse.
• Hence it is obvious that the accuracy of this measurement is not really linked to the pulse width (which defines the range
resolution) but rather on the receiver signal strength (which is linked to the range). Hence the range error should increase with
the range.
• Radar resolution cell: The volume of space that is occupied by a radar pulse
and that is determined by the pulse duration and the horizontal and vertical
beamwidths of the transmitting radar. Note: The radar cannot distinguish
between two separate objects that lie within the same resolution cell. The
radar resolution cell depth (RCD ) remains constant regardless of the distance
from the transmitting antenna. It does not increase with range. The RCD is
given by RCD = 150d , where the RCD is in meters and d is the pulse duration in
microseconds. The height of the cell and the width of the cell do increase with
range. These are given by W = (HBW )(R /57) and H = (VBW )(R /57), where W
is the width of the cell, HBW is the horizontal beamwidth in degrees, R is the
range, H is the height of the cell, and VBW is the vertical beamwidth in
degrees. The range, R , is the distance from the radar antenna to the reflecting
object, i.e., the target. The width and height will come out in the same units in
which the range is given. For example, if the range is given in meters, the width
and height of the radar resolution cell will be in meters. The 57 merely
converts degrees to radians. If the beamwidths are given in radian measure,
the 57 is omitted.
The resolution cell
END UNIT-1